Three Octets from Kerby Ave

kerby ave octet #1

juncos scrounge through lavish kale & nasturtiums
in a raised bed, dart to the privet’s cover—

on a porch three upholstered flower print chairs,
a yellow Tonka truck—a sparrow alights

on chain link above the hedge, vanishes; no
one sits on purple benches under a pine—

motorboat streaked with mold parked on its trailer,
outboard under a blue tarp: nowhere to go


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kerby ave octet #2


black motorbike parked between two black plum trees;
white gull flies behind the bare limbs’s tracery,

& two crows swoop in the same direction, glide
wire to wire; foraging squirrels freeze on a

fence rail; tortoiseshell cat dozes on front steps,
but the sun’s just a smear in this overcast—

yellow diamond sign shows kids on a seesaw;
life isn’t fair scribbled there in black spray paint


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kerby ave octet #3


on this side of the street an unfilled bird bath,
statue of a girl leans smiling into its

basin—next door black mold has overtaken
a white wicker porch chair; a tv set left

at the curb, lined white paper taped to the screen:
no discernible message—chinese lanterns

trail on an iron railing, orange teardrops;
mailbox painted with sunflowers & blue sky


Jack Hayes
© 2016

11/30/16